Every consultant has a scheme
The architect writes A-101, the engineer S_100-01 and the services consultant puts the job number first. Each scheme makes sense on its own, but the register has to hold all of them side by side.
File naming
A drawing file naming convention that software can read
Most firms agree a drawing file naming convention once and then argue about it for the rest of the project. Its purpose is simple: anyone, and any system, should be able to tell from the file name which drawing it is and which revision. This page sets out the pattern Fidrel reads when a file is uploaded, with examples run against it, so that a drawing filed today becomes the right revision of the right drawing without anybody retyping it.
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Why file names let projects down
The revision hides in the middle
Files arrive as Ground floor plan C01 final v2. A person can guess which part is the revision; a system cannot, and the next issue is filed as a separate drawing.
Names change on the way in
A file is renamed when it is downloaded, copied or saved again, and a browser adds (1) to the end. The drawing is the same, but its name no longer matches the issue before.
Examples tested against Fidrel’s reader
A-101 Ground floor plan rev P02.pdf gives the number A-101, the title Ground floor plan and the revision P02. M-201 Level 2 ductwork REV.C03.pdf gives M-201 and C03, and revision C03 or rev_C03 at the end work the same way. A1001 Ground floor plan rev P01.pdf is read correctly because letters followed straight by digits also count as a number, and so is ME2001. A project number of three to eight digits in front stays part of the number, as in 1234-A-101. Underscores inside the title turn into spaces, and a copy marker such as (1) at the end is ignored.
Documents, drawings & models
Habits the reader does not follow
A four-digit sheet number straight after the first hyphen, as in A-1001, is not recognised, and neither is a prefix of five letters or a number made of digits alone, such as 101. A revision is only read at the very end of the name and only after rev, or as a lone final letter, so Ground floor plan C01, rev C01 final and (rev C01) all leave the revision empty. If a scheme needs four-digit sheets, put a short group in front, as in A-10-1001, or join letters and digits, as in A1001.
Naming a drawing so Fidrel reads it
Step 1
Put the drawing number first
Start the name with the drawing number, then a space and the title: A-101 Ground floor plan. Up to four letters, a hyphen, dot, underscore or space and one to three digits count as a number, with more groups allowed after it, as in S-100-01.
Step 2
End with rev and the revision
Finish the name with rev and the revision, such as rev P02 or REV.C03, using up to three letters or digits. A single letter after a space or an underscore at the very end, as in _C, is read as a revision as well.
Step 3
Check the dialog before uploading
The upload dialog shows the number, title and revision it found in each name, in fields you can correct, and says whether the file becomes a New document or a New version of a number already in the project.
Project-wide names with many fields
Many UK projects agree a file name made of fields, such as project, originator, zone, level, type, role and number, joined by hyphens. Such a name is still usable in Fidrel as long as each issue of a drawing keeps exactly the same file name and the revision is typed in the Revision field or left for Fidrel to count on. The match on the next upload then finds the existing number and offers New version.
Matching numbers and catching duplicates
Numbers are compared without regard to capital letters or spaces at either end, so a-101 and A-101 are the same drawing. A number belongs to one document in the project: the dialog stops a new document whose number is taken with This number already exists. Choose New version or change the number, and two files with one number in the same upload are flagged Same number as another file in this upload. In the drawing register, numbers sort the way people read them, so A-2 comes before A-10.
What the file name reader does not do
Fidrel takes the number, title and revision from the file name alone; it does not look inside the drawing for them. A name built from many fields is not split into its parts or checked against the project’s agreed codes. When the start of a name is not recognised as a number, the whole name, any revision text included, becomes the number in capitals, so the next revision with a different name arrives as a new document unless someone corrects the number in the dialog.
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At least the drawing number, a short title and the revision, in that order, with the revision at the end after rev. A project number of three to eight digits may come first; letter codes in front of the drawing number stop Fidrel finding it.
No. It reads one common pattern, number then title then revision, and makes no claim of conformance with any naming standard. A project’s own convention can still be used, with the full name as the number.
Nothing is lost. The whole name becomes the number and the title, and you can correct both, and type the revision, in the upload dialog before anything is uploaded.
Yes. Numbers are compared without regard to capital letters or surrounding spaces, so the second upload is offered as a new version of the first rather than as a new document.
Most likely it was not at the very end of the name after rev. Left empty, the revision is given by the project’s scheme instead, such as P02 after P01, and the dialog shows what it will become.